The January Man -- Dave Goulder

Guest poem sent in by Andy Webb

(Poem #648) The January Man The January man he walks the road In woollen coat and boots of leather The February man still shakes the snow From off his hair and blows his hands The man of March he sees the Spring and Wonders what the year will bring And hopes for better weather Through April rains the man comes down To watch the birds come in to share the summer The man of May stands very still Watching the children dance away the day In June the man inside the man is young And wants to lend a hand And grins at each new color And in July the man in cotton shirt He sits and thinks on being idle The August man in thousands take the road To watch the sea and find the sun September man is standing near To saddle up another year And Autumn is his bridle The man of new October takes the reins And early frost is on his shoulder The poor November man sees fire and rain And snow and mist and wintery gale December man looks through the snow To let eleven brothers know They're all a little older And the January man comes round again In woollen coat and boots of leather To take another turn and walk along the icy road he knows so well For the January man is here for Starting each and every year Along the road for ever -- Dave Goulder

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is a good carol, and since you mention
carols which do not rely upon the tune, I thought I'd send you the
following. This is the best version (indeed, the only version) I could
find on-line, it being as accurate as any that I could transcribe from
memory).

This is a tradional west country carol for the time of year. I had the
pleasure of hearing it sung (unaccompanied), by Hearts of Oak in an old
church in a Devon Village only two weeks ago.

Andy

[Martin adds]

Lovely poem, though I wouldn't have guessed it was a Christmas carol. I
suspect it wasn't really written as one, but rather adopted into the
Christmas tradition later. Andy's right; it does stand up on its own
very well, though I didn't appreciate how well the delayed rhyme worked
until I heard it sung.

Notes and Links:

- There's an mp3 at
  http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/8/william_pint_amp_felicia_dale.html
  Recommended - this is a *beautiful* song. Many thanks to Andy for
  introducing me to it.

- http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/j/januarym.html has a bit about the song

- THE JANUARY MAN

  Written by Dave Goulder, a one time foot plate man in the good old
  days of steam trains, who was also a keen walker and climber. He left
  his hometown of Nottingham to run a climbing centre in the Torridon
  Hills in Scotland and it was there, he says, that he saw for the first
  time through his townie eyes the year passing month by month through
  the seasons. Dave now runs courses in dry-stone walling but is still
  singing and writing songs. This I believe is one of the most perfect
  songs ever written.

        -- [broken link] http://www.mikeharding.co.uk/music/bomber.htm#jan

- There are several variants floating around; Andy's matches the mp3 I
  pointed to; however there are some details I think have been altered
  from the original, particularly the end of the June verse (where 'new
  colour' seems to have replaced 'newcomer', though it is the latter
  that rhymes). For the sake of completeness, here's the other set of
  lyrics:

  The January man he walks abroad in woollen coat and boots of leather
  The February man still wipes the snow from off his hair and blows his hands
  The man of March he sees the spring and wonders what the year will bring
  And hopes for better weather

  Through April rain the man goes down to watch the birds come in to share
    the summer
  The man of May stands very still watching the children dance away the day
  In June the man inside the man is young and wants to lend a hand
  And grins at each newcomer

  And in July the man in cotton shirt he sits and thinks on being idle
  The August man in thousands take the road and watch the sea and find the sun
  September man is standing near to saddle up and leave the year
  And autumn is his bridle

  And the man of new October takes the reins and early frost is on his shoulder
  The poor November man sees fire and wind and mist and rain and winter air
  December man looks through the snow to let eleven brothers know
  They're all a little older

  And the January man comes round again in woollen coat and boots of leather
  To take another turn and walk along the icy road he knows so well
  The January man is here for starting off each and every year
  Along the way forever

        -- Dave Goulder

- Here's a brief biography of Goulder:
   http://www.fyldefolk.freeserve.co.uk/fyldefolk/d.html

- And look out for tomorrow's Irresistible Followup.

-martin